Op-Ed: Kristallnacht in Realtime
Paris, the city of light: the city of love. The city of quaint, the city of chic. The city of Kristallnacht. Only no German this time: Arabic, and Arabic-infused French. And technically it’s not nacht, it’s in broad daylight. And no black-and-white reel-to-reel; it’s as full-colored as the thingamajig you’re reading this on.
A sometimes Francophile and a wannabe Francophone, I’ve come to sometimes love the culture but always to feel comfortable yet tickled and intrigued by it. (Yes, I show off about it, too.) I’ve spent all of 36 hours in my life in Paris, yet it’s mine the way, say Kansas City will never be.
So when I saw that the Jews were penned into the Don Isaac Abarbanel Syangogue, I Youtubed it (did I just make a verb?) and saw the hoodlums working their way up the street. And what an oh-so-French street it is! With the red-awning outside the cafe Le Bastille with the unstained wooden chairs on the sidewalk (New York cannot duplicate that, much as they try) and a hotel marquee. I googlemapped it, streetviewed it, and lo and behold, the same red awning, without the bloodthirsty mobs. Both Youtube and Googlemap caught Place de la Bastille on a gorgeous day, even with the rain. I thought the street view even showed a Chasidic Jew walking near the Subways (as in food, not Metro) but the face was blurred.
There is some blur, but too much is crystal clear. Google ‘France and anti-Semitism’ and you will learn about the right-wing party led by a father and now his daughter. Whether Marine follows Jean-Marie’s xenophobia is as incredulously, ridiculously immaterial as whether the Communists fighting the Brownshirts espoused credible economic policy. Jean Marie has made dubious statements; the Arabs gather to kill. The date is stamped on the YouTube: today’s date, staining forever the fact that I sit in California and watch Kristallnacht in Europe. Realtime.
“Is Paris burning?” Hitler famously demanded, when his orders to raze the city were ignored. The answer, of course, is yes, it is at a boiling point. Sadly, the proverbial frog swims obliviously as the caged canary struggles for breath.
Croissants for breakfast, anyone?
Shimon Posner is a Chabad rabbi in Rancho Mirage, CA
MD
Too sad to be true
no comparison
don’t trivialize what happened by kristallnacht. there was enormous destruction of lives and property, aided by the government organizations at all levels. it was the beginning of systematic, organized, policy-driven attacks on Jews and annihilation of Jewish life and Jewish lives in Germany. While the intent of the arabs in paris might be the same, the reality is – thank G-d – vastly different. Comparing the two is like comparing the knock-out “game” on the streets of Crown Heights to the pogroms in Russia. While the response of french authorities leaves much to be desired – to put it mildly – it’s still a far cry from what german police and general german population did during kristallnacht. I hope and pray that it never be allowed to be even remotely similar to the scale and atrocities of kristallnacht. And you, Rabbi Posner, should know better than making these sensational comparisons – al tiftach peh le’raah
Millionaire
Thank you, #2.
Edelman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geye3CS3e0A
this is what hapend exactly
Aschkenas
In Germany the situation is similar. Some incidents already. See:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jewish-germany-and-operation-protective-edge-2/